Crossing Borders in Initial Teacher Education: Supporting Translations in the Inner-City Practicum

Abstract

Research examining teacher candidates’ preparation to teach in high-poverty, urban contexts marked by diversities and inequalities, throughout North America and internationally, is predominantly focused on examining and changing problematic attitudes based in white normativity and privilege. While this is extremely important, there has been a noted absence of research that supports translations of critical ideas from coursework into the practicum experience. In this article we share a case-study of eight teacher candidates supported by a practicum team approach designed to support these translations into the inner-city teaching practicum. The study is designed and analyzed through decolonial, settler-colonial, critical, and Indigenous theories and philosophies. The authors found common deficit perspectives in the practicum site, but that a relational focus across university and school contexts supported the translation of critical ideas into practice. This study recommends a more explicit engagement with settler colonialism and white privilege within both the practicum and coursework.

Murky Waters: An Arts-Based Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls

“…As a research assistant in 2019, I walked and researched alongside settler scholar Dr. Jeannie Kerr. We engaged in walking analyses in significant places in Winnipeg, including the Forks location which led to metaphorical findings, including the River as a teacher (Kerr & Ferguson, 2020;Kerr & Ferguson, 2021). Through this experience, informed by Donald's concept of ethical relationality (Donald, 2009(Donald, , 2012(Donald, , 2016, "we were taught by land and place and the participants' words" (Kerr & Ferguson, 2020, p. 6).…”

“…There is also an urgency to support the need for engagement with critical issues both in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs and amongst current K-12 teachers (Kerr & Ferguson, 2021). I feel a sense of responsibility to bring the ongoing displacement of Indigenous women and girls into curricular discussions.…”

Enhancing inclusive education through active student teacher participation: A case study of a university in Cape Town

“…The main aim of the study was to examine the nature of tools and enablers that guide finalyear student teachers in the process of transitioning from inclusive expert student teachers to inclusive novice teachers. Some researchers (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999;Kerr & Ferguson, 2021) who have sought to understand how students navigate from one level of skill acquisition to another have used border crossing as a framing concept. According to these scholars, border crossing in this context, is used to refer to students who are transitioning from their familiar lifeworlds (for example, as university students) into the classroom space-which constitutes a form of cross-cultural experience that is steeped in many challenges and tensions.…”